{"id":50296,"date":"2024-11-09T15:04:46","date_gmt":"2024-11-09T20:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=50296"},"modified":"2024-11-13T15:04:51","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T20:04:51","slug":"can-it-be-a-hipaa-violation-to-be-judgmental-pricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=50296","title":{"rendered":"Can it be a HIPAA violation to be judgmental pricks?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Like many people (should), I take my health seriously.\u00a0 I exercise regularly, I\u2019m (mostly) mindful of what I eat, I try to get a consistent amount of sleep each night, I drink lots of water, and I avoid sick people whenever I can, my own family notwithstanding.<\/span><\/p>\n

However with kids, that last part becomes nigh impossible, especially when we get into the cold and flu season, and despite the fact that I\u2019m not a fan of coughing and sneezing right into my face, they\u2019re my kids, and it goes without saying a lot of times, exposure to airborne illness is unavoidable.<\/span><\/p>\n

I woke up the other day with a tickle in my throat, and my head feeling like a bowling ball.\u00a0 It stung when I swallowed, which was consistent from the night before where I began to suspect that I might be coming down with something.\u00a0 During this time of the year, and especially when my kids are sick, I rinse out my sinuses multiple times a day, which is something I swear by and something I attribute my general ability to avoid getting sick to, but with as much coughing and sneezing I\u2019ve had done in my face, even rinsing 3-4 times a day has its limitations.<\/span><\/p>\n

My general modus operandi when it comes to the onset of sickness, is to go to urgent care and start medications as soon as I can.\u00a0 Getting in front of sicknesses has worked wonders in the past, and it\u2019s what I do in order to minimize sick time and more importantly, be up and healthy so that I can care for my kids.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s what I did this past weekend, and after my initial vitals were taken, where everything was normal like my blood pressure, temperature, pulse, etc, even I began to wonder if I had jumped the gun too early.\u00a0 Clearly, I wasn\u2019t the only one who was thinking this, because the NP who had seen me, I could feel the judgment coming from her that I was in pretty good shape to be coming into urgent care, and probably triggering her internal flags that I was probably some medication-seeking junkie or something.<\/span><\/p>\n

She told me that Mucinex DM would be sufficient at dealing with what I thought<\/em> was going to be the illness coming, and that over-the-counter drugs should counteract my symptoms.\u00a0 But probably because I had paid my co-pay and I suspect this clinic has some arrangement with whatever manufacturer produces Prednisolone, they gave me a script for that to deal with the cough, that was just only happening occasionally to me, but #1 sounds like a nightmare, and that\u2019s exactly what I didn\u2019t want to happen to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I was leaving my appointment, I was handed my discharge papers, and I noticed that on the front of it was stapled this little addition that I hadn\u2019t gotten before: Antibiotics Aren\u2019t Always the Answer<\/em>, which was basically this condescending little FAQ that seemed directed to people like me who had the audacity to come to a place called urgent care, for symptoms remotely nowhere near urgent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s the thing though, if there were a place I could go to get immediate medical consult, and not have to wait 4-6 fucking weeks, I would go there.\u00a0 But because there is not, I go to a place where I can get immediate consult, even if it\u2019s called urgent care and my symptoms are not urgent.\u00a0 Such is the nature of American healthcare, where we\u2019ve been pigeonholed into such limited options.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I interpreted this note on my papers as the NP\u2019s way of trying to give me a gentle reminder<\/em> that my issues weren\u2019t severe and that she probably thinks I\u2019m a person chasing prescription medication.\u00a0 And honestly, I don\u2019t really appreciate it.<\/span><\/p>\n

She doesn\u2019t know my circumstances.\u00a0 A lot of people I know don\u2019t understand my circumstances.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am the primary caregiver for my kids.\u00a0 I\u2019m the one person who can\u2019t afford to be shelved due to bullshit sicknesses because the world can\u2019t mask up or stay home when they\u2019re not feeling well.\u00a0 Sure, there are others who can fill in when it\u2019s necessary, but if it\u2019s under my control to optimize my recovery time and get in front of things to stop them from escalating to an addling illness, I\u2019m going to fucking do them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nobody else wakes up at 6:40 every single day of the week to make sure breakfast is made and lunches are prepared for school.\u00a0 Nobody else gets up in the middle of the night when one my kids has a nightmare and needs comfort.\u00a0 I\u2019m the one who goes to the school for the kids\u2019 activities and I\u2019m the one who takes the kids out to the park or for Friday ice cream, or most anything that requires physical presence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Needless to say, I wasn\u2019t pleased with the passive aggressive insinuation that I was seeking medical attention unnecessarily.\u00a0 I paid my co-pay, and I had every right to be there.\u00a0 Furthermore, at the time I went, I was the only person waiting on any sort of consultation, it\u2019s not like it was a packed clinic full of ailing people that I was cockblocking from getting critical treatment.\u00a0 If they didn\u2019t feel I needed to be there, they would be more than welcome to let me know this, refund my copay and send me off, with me eating the cost in time.<\/span><\/p>\n

I do what I do in order to be in as tip-top condition as I can, all the time, in order to be the best dad that I can be for my kids, because the last thing I want is to be the dad that\u2019s always sick, seldom capable, and never present.\u00a0 Even if it means hitting up urgent care at the first sign of sickness, I\u2019m not going to wait until any shit to get full blown before I pull the trigger and have to wait for medications to kick in, when I can act first and be the one doing any kicking to any ailments.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to do this every single time, and hopefully with less judgment in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like many people (should), I take my health seriously.\u00a0 I exercise regularly, I\u2019m (mostly) mindful of what I eat, I try to get a consistent amount of sleep each night, I drink lots of water, and I avoid sick people whenever I can, my own family notwithstanding. However with kids, that last part becomes nigh … Continue reading Can it be a HIPAA violation to be judgmental pricks?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[193,207,192,83,105,146],"class_list":["post-50296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-dad","tag-health","tag-kids","tag-observations","tag-rage","tag-triggered"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50298,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50296\/revisions\/50298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}